Stability of magnetic-field induced helical phase in Rashba superconductors

Abstract

Due to the lack of both parity and time reversal symmetries, the Rashba superconductors CePt_3Si, CeRhSi_3, and CeIrSi_3, in the presence of a magnetic field, are unstable to helical (single plane-wave) order. We develop a microscopic theory for such superconductors and examine the stability of this helical phase. We show that the helical phase typically occupies most of the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram. However, we also find that this phase is sometimes unstable to a multiple-q phase, in which both the magnitude and the phase of the order parameter are spatially varying. We find the position of this helical to multiple-q phase transition. We further examine the density of states and identify features unique to the helical phase.